51吃瓜 of the Day
finagle
verb (used with object)
to get or achieve (something) by guile, trickery, or manipulation: to finagle an assignment to the Membership Committee.
More about finagle
Finagle (or fenagle), 鈥渢o cheat or swindle a person,鈥� is in origin an American slang word. Finagle is probably a variant of fainaigue, a British dialect term with two meanings: 鈥渢o shirk work or responsibility鈥� and 鈥渢o renege at a card game,鈥� that is, to play a card that is not of the suit led when one can follow suit鈥� (this to a layman sounds an awful lot like cheating). A citation from 1839 from Herefordshire (a county in West England) reads, 鈥淚f two men are heaving a heavy weight, and one of them pretends to be putting out his strength, though in reality leaving all the strain on the other, he is said to feneague [sic闭.鈥� Fainaigue (feneague) and finagle (fenagle) have no agreed etymology. Finagle entered English in the mid-1920s.
how is finagle used?
Meng聽pleaded guilty last year聽to using his position in China to finagle more than $2 million in bribes between 2005 and 2017.
in order to provide its citizens tests for a pandemic disease, the wealthiest and most powerful nation had to desperately finagle the services of volunteer coders at Google.
finagle
susurration
noun
a soft murmur; whisper.
More about susurration
Susurration, 鈥渁 murmur, whisper,鈥� ultimately comes from the Latin noun 蝉耻蝉耻谤谤腻迟颈艒 (inflectional stem 蝉耻蝉耻谤谤腻迟颈艒n-), 鈥渁 murmur, whisper, soft rustling,鈥� a derivative of 蝉耻蝉耻谤谤腻迟(耻蝉), the past participle of the verb 蝉耻蝉耻谤谤腻谤别. Unsurprisingly, 蝉耻蝉耻谤谤腻谤别 (and all its derivatives) is onomatopoeic not only in Latin, but also in other Indo-European languages, from the Proto-Indo-European root swer-, swor-, 蝉飞峁�– 鈥渢o buzz, hum.鈥� The same root supplies the name of small animals: for instance, the root variant swor– is the source of Latin 蝉艒谤别虫 (stem 蝉艒谤颈肠-) 鈥渟hrew, shrew mouse,鈥� Greek 丑媒谤补虫 (stem 丑媒谤补办-) 鈥渟hrew, shrew mouse, hyrax鈥� and Greek 丑媒谤辞苍 鈥渂eehive, swarm (of bees).鈥� The Germanic form swar– (from swor-) supplies English swirl and swarm, Old Norse svarmr 鈥渦proar, tumult,鈥� and German schwirren 鈥渢o buzz (of an insect), whirr (of an arrow).鈥� Susurration entered English in the first half of the 15th century.
how is susurration used?
It must be the whisper of time as it bends over the horizon, a susurration of mortality none can escape.
Leaving the hotel and taking a stroll, I was reminded that the town鈥檚 homey otherness is heightened at night. … The susurrations of palms … caress the ear.
susurration
argy-bargy
noun
Chiefly British.
a vigorous discussion or dispute.
More about argy-bargy
Argy-bargy, 鈥渁 vigorous discussion, dispute,鈥� appears in print in 1887, just 15 years after its 鈥渙riginal,鈥� argle-bargle. The argle of argle-bargle is a variant of argue. Yet another variant, argue-bargue, which gives away the entire etymology, appears in 1906. Argle entered English towards the end of the 16th century; its offspring all date from the second half of the 19th century.
how is argy-bargy used?
There appears to have ensued more than two decades of argy-bargy over where the new hall should be located, during which time the merchants would meet at the Chamber of Commerce premises.
On the international scene, he can only be reassured by the strident argy-bargy between Moscow and Peking, despite some pundits’ predictions that the U.S. stand in Viet Nam could only induce harmony between the two great Communist powers.
argy-bargy